Beta 2.6 Changelog:
Some updates are pretty groundbreaking! I recommend reading through them all to make sure you understand the new changes going in. As always, it's recommended to start a new save file, but these changes should work on existing saves.
Enemy Tweaks and Updates:
Manny:
Manny's speed has been doubled. This makes him much harder to evade when not looking at him. (Impossible to outrun him.)
Fixed an issue where Manny would often overshoot doors when trying to enter them. He is now able to chase the player more prominently throughout the game after fixing the issue, and I suggest leaving feedback for this if you get around to testing the game.
Manny should no longer be able to teleport behind you and grab you from too far away. Be careful though, small half-walls (like the Help Center's) will not stop him from reaching over and grabbing you anyway.
Manny no longer flees every time after attacking. He will only flee sometimes, making him more relentless. To counteract this, he gives you roughly 5s~ to run away, indicated by his slow 'mouth-closing' animation.
Weaker Mannies mostly remain the same despite these changes, but all 'bugs' have been patched with them as well.
Stalker:
Stalker is now much better at not getting stuck. There were issues with the stalker going back and forth, or getting stuck between two points and jittering or getting snagged. His logic has been patched up so this does not happen nearly as much. Although if it still does, please let me know on Discord, email, or as a Steam comment here. Discord is probably the most likely to get noticed though.
Stalker's "Stare Down" mechanic has been removed. It was a feature that felt like a bug. There was an actual feature where he would sometimes just stare at you, cowering away when you get close to him. I removed this since it didn't have enough feedback and generally felt kind of weird.
Stalker will now check hiding spots when the player's been spotted long enough. He will now check for where he last saw you if he spotted you for long enough. This timer is attached to his aggression, so if his aggression reaches 40%, he will look where he last saw you, requiring the player to reposition or give away their spot.
Stalker now takes resources from you if you are caught. He chooses to steal one available resource from the player permanently. He never takes too much, but just enough to get the player to crunch sometimes on earlier shifts.
Security Bot:
Security Bot now has a 'confiscation' inventory animation for items in your inventory that were stolen. It'll flash the item(s) in red 3 times before it disappears from your inventory, the next time you view it.
Security Bot animations have been mostly restored. Some transitions may be a bit wonky still, but at least they aren't broken. Will continue with additional fixes as future updates roll out.
Security Bot is more relentless with his chase, and will speed it up over time, quickly. He now has a 'Curious' state where he will follow you roughly at walking speed to try and spot you better. It's much harder to evade him when he's following you around, but it's still possible if you try running around corners and avoiding line-of-sight. After his aggression builds during the Curious state, he will try and scan you, of which it is supposed to be much harder to evade, especially around corners. Please give feedback on this if possible to see if more difficulty tuning is required.
Scan cooldown remains the same for now, but he now has placeholder subtitles for 'recalibration'. These new voice lines let players know that he's on a cooldown and won't scan again until a bit later.
Security Bot should no longer wander out into the Warehouse General and House areas. This was an issue in 2.5.
Security Bot voicelines don't interrupt each other nearly as much. Thanks to the new state transitions and more solid code, he has less of a chance to interrupt himself. Will continue tweaking if I discover more issues with this as it's a low-priority change at this point.
Floor 4 Security Bot (Boss Security Bot) also received these changes and small tweaks to his overall behaviour. These changes make both Bot variants act much more similar to each other, while being tweaked for their respective purposes. One is a more general wanderer, and the other is a boss for an enclosed space. To make sure, Boss Security Bot's chase and curious states are weaker due to a more claustrophobic layout, while his spotting has received a buff. He can now also 'hear' terminals being interacted with and will go into "Investigation" mode, checking near the terminal that was pressed to see if the player was there. He's also much better at actively following the player during his Curious phase compared to the regular Security Bot.
Mothman
Mothman now has a chance to disappear when fleeing. Hopefully providing some breathing room for players in Warehouse General in between his aggressive attacks.
Mothman animation transitions have been improved. They still require some additional work so please wait for more details in future updates. When vanishing, the Mothman will not return for a couple minutes.
Mothman will always vanish after an attack. This is to give attacked players - successful or not - some breathing room.
Mothman's lunge now has a slight delay, and predicts where the player's going to intercept. This makes his lunges something that the player can dodge, but the prediction step is where the player must try and juke it out, making it more skill-based of a counter.
After unsuccessfully lunging at the player (missing), Mothman has a slight chance to lunge again. This makes dodging him less predictable, as it's hard to tell when he'll pounce again.
Overall, this enemy is still the least tightly put together and I'd heavily appreciate any testing/feedback for it.
That's it for the enemies, now onto other fixes and tweaks. Here's the nearly-full changelog for bugs and tweaks:
Audio Tweaks. Ambient drone in the back has been dialed down to a peep, making it more possible than ever to hear sounds from far away. Footsteps have been lowered in volume, doors have increased volume, but a sharp drop off, making only somewhat nearby doors very audible, where far-off ones (in other areas) are completely silent.
Replaced old and ugly models with cool new ones. Thanks Dingo! Will be working to replace similar inventory icons/models for Beta III.
Jumpscare cooldowns are now player-sided. This should completely prevent being jumpscared constantly by multiple enemies, and give players enough of a buffer to run away.
Fixed as many Task Generation related issues as possible. At this point I believe all tasks given to the player should be possible.
Early testing: Incorrect submissions and explosions output a message to the Log screen. These messages will attempt to describe the issue best they can and give players needed feedback to act upon.
Electric and Supercharged Payloads now correctly display an interference effect. This was bugged in 2.5 and didn't show up.
Heavy Recyclables are a bit better now. Dropping items through walls should no longer occur although I did not heavily test this and will release a hotfix if it persists. They should also no longer play weird sounds and allow you to drop them with left-click as well as E. They play a loud crash when dropping them prematurely, making it hopefully a bit more apparent that there's a hold-to-drop system, although heavy recyclables are very avoidable and I'll be working to solve that issue for the next Beta hopefully.
Fixed an issue where blueprints could be inserted into other terminals than the Fabricator. Thought I fixed this. Applied another bandage to it, I believe this one is the last fix I'll need to do.
Other optimizations and tweaks - too many tiny useless ones to list here but you can take my word for it.
If you end up finding any game-breaking bugs, report them immediately on Discord to get fast responses and hotfixes coming. You can also still revert to the previous update by going through the Steam Game Properties and going to the 'beta2.5' branch. Thanks for the feedback everyone! Happy gaming.